Joseph Coleman Carter III, Nick Heinle's grandfather, was born in Versailles, Kentucky, on September 28, 1910. Son of a gentleman farmer, he spent his childhood hunting and fishing,
where he learned to appreciate nature. He went to the United States Naval Academy at the
age of 18, then went on to Columbia University were he received a Masters Degree in
Mechanical Engineering. He was asked to join the Manhattan Project while at Columbia, where
he worked under the direction of General Leslie Groves. During this time he and other engineers built a pilot version of the atomic bomb. One year later he and his new wife, Mary Leaphart, moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he worked on refining isotopes of uranium, and started work on designing nuclear submarines for the government. After leaving Oak Ridge, he went
on to work for Argonne, a government lab, there he worked on development of the nuclear
breeder reactor, which was designed to reuse spent fuel. In 1976, he returned to his old
Kentucky home, in Versailles, where he managed a farm and taught nuclear physics at the University of Kentucky. On June 26, 1992, he passed away after having a stroke.